A Brain, A Heart, A Home, The Nerve
by Nevermore49
Summary: He had never expected that he would be the hero, but when the Wicked Witch of the West has you in her sights, no other option really exists. Season 3 AU.
1. Chapter 1

Hiya! Been a long time OUAT fan and recently decided to start writing fics of my own. My favorite character (Whale/Frankenstein) and my favorite ship (Whale/FrankensteinXRuby/Red) never get any love so I'm going to try my hand at it. Sorry if it's a mess, but I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own _Once Upon a Time_, but if I did, every episode would have Ruby in it kicking butt and taking names.

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**Chapter One: Unexpected Awakenings**

_Victor heard heels clacking towards him and continued to look at his medical notes, still focused as he bent over his desk with liquid gold in his right hand. He knew there was only one person who would dare visit him during work and his body's immediate response was for the hairs on the back of his neck to rise. Since she was coming his way, he feigned being absorbed in scribbling comments in the margins regarding the restorative effects of fairy dust._

_Frankenstein chugged down his coffee and flinched as the liquid landed on his blouse, burning the skin underneath. He casually wiped off the spot, uncaring if it stained. Oh well, not the worst liquid to have soiled one of his shirts._

_The real problem would have been if it had landed on and smeared his sketches._

_Behind him he heard the shoes stop and a happy thrill ran up and down his spine. "Really should have listened to you this time. It appears another innocent outfit has been ruined in the pursuit of knowledge," he joked, a smile lighting up his face, expecting and loving how she was one of the few that felt comfortable with scolding him._

"_Why hello there to you too, my little genius," a distorted voice mocked, one that Victor felt in his gut should not have been able to get in here. It was impossible for him to pin down where he had her voice before because it rose and lowered in pitch as if someone was auto-tuning everything she said._

"_I can only assume why you are here," he stated calm as could be even as his back tensed. Whale knew she shouldn't be here, but somehow he felt that breaking into this fortress was definitely not the hardest thing she had had to accomplish. As he struggled to make sense of the situation, Victor's voice strayed off to a garbled mess, "But all I care about is... you have… her… dead."_

_His eyes rose from looking at his notes to staring at the garbled green mass in front of him. He couldn't discern her face, but he was positive he knew her. But the more he stared, the less sure he was of her appearance. Was she white, black, or green like he had first imagined?_

"_Does she matter?" the intruder cackled, long and loud, "I… here… for..."_

_He felt his nails dig into his palms, but he didn't know why. Everything was such a mess, what was going on? "…matter… hide… where… go… find… When you… weakest… be… there… over… when… die… harmed… promise... that much."_

_Another cackle and he could feel her sneer burned into his limbic system although she remained to be invisible, "Doubtful. Now… good… let… take… need."_

"_Never." He heard himself hiss this with stunning clarity, with such hatred. Victor's hand slid across the table and enclosed itself around what he knew was a remote. A button was pressed and was immediately followed by the crackle of electricity biting through the air._

_Light coursed through the room and for a second it was not his office at the hospital, but an all stone room as if from a castle. He could hear her screaming, not of pain, but of rage. Whatever he had activated had impeded her original plan._

_Suddenly it wasn't important as to what he had done for pain jolted up his body and it wasn't her screaming, but himself and-_

**BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!**

Victor Frankenstein bolted up out of bed, his hand slamming over the blasted clock and causing various items to fall to the floor in his haste. After this original scramble, his hands rose to rub his temples, always loathing what the morning-after felt like. Out of all his many drunken stupors, this was the worst hangover he had ever braved, even worse than the time that outsider came to town.

Swinging his legs over the bed, he proceeded to evaluate what the heck was going on. Whale did not remember drinking; he had even attempted to avoid alcohol after the incident with the outsider. Had someone died? Left? What was he forgetting?

Yesterday he had…Wait. Yesterday they had all prepared to leave Storybrooke; yesterday they were supposed to have been delivered home. Victor had said goodbye to everyone he knew, hugged the few friends he usually kept at arms length and prepared to be sent home to a household now long dead and rotted. Yesterday he was supposed to have been delivered home to continue what he did best.

Today he remained in Storybrooke, waking up in just the same way he had at the beginning of the previous curse. They had all suffered and now it should have been all over, Regina had said that it would all be over. But they also knew her as a notorious liar. What else had they really expected?

Let the torture continue for the outsider to their realm, that was definitely what they had been thinking. Just keep bringing the crazy Doctor Whale back into their problems because Storybrooke wouldn't be able to function without their only medically licensed braniac.

Sometimes he regretted that he hadn't gone into some other menial career like politics. Except he would never stoop that low, he loved what he did, even after all the pain it had inflicted on himself and those around him.

Victor grabbed onto his night stand, vision already blurring as he pushed himself into a standing position. Okay, good, he had some semblance of motor control…and than he felt himself tilt backwards to fall right back into bed.

He knew right off the bat that had hit his throbbing head that today was not going to be a good day, but he still struggled to move. Whale had to make it to Granny's, the Town Hall, or the hospital. Who cares where! All he needed was to talk to other citizens, figure out what was going on, why the hell Regina would curse them again and were there any magic beans left so that he could blow this fairy tale gone awry?

But first things first, he needed pants, and a shirt. Underwear would help too. What could he say? Doctor Whale preferred sleeping in the nude.

Once again Victor sat up, grabbed the table, and successfully pulled himself to an off-balance standing position. He slowly scooted himself so that he leaned against the wall and made his way towards the bathroom.

Upon entering, he limped over to the sink and cleaned off his face. A thin later of sweat had been making him feel uncomfortably sticky.

Whale's eyes rose to lock with those of his reflection's and blinked at his unmarred face and slightly scruffy hair. For some reason it was at least an inch longer than it had been yesterday, not matching with the timeline in his head.

The Doctor's eyes raked down his body, pausing to glower at the huge claw marks on his chest.

Never before had he been one to run about and hurt himself, Victor Frankenstein had always been the pensive big brother who patched up the overly-active martyrs around him. But sure enough, four widely spaced, parallel, mostly healed scars ran from his shoulder to the middle of his chest, the pink of the injury looking glaringly obvious against his porcelain skin. Victor was sure that one was new; he had only ever seen such blemishes on animal attack victims and he had never been one. His clinical side pushed through the inspection, knowing if there was one problem that had arisen between what he had first assumed to be yesterday and today, there was bound be more.

Again, another unexplained mark cluttered his skin for he could see the start of a Lichtenberg Flower running from his right shoulder to somewhere on his back. He had not had one of these since his original tampering with all things electricity, but no matter what, he knew this one was new. It was a fairly fresh scar and somewhere along the line it had healed. If the destroyed blood vessels were anything to go by, he had been hit by lightning.

This also would explain his trouble moving. The lightning strike had hopefully caused a very temporary failure to maintain equilibrium. At least the first time he had had these problems Igor had been there to help him fumble around, but this time he would have to hobble around town alone.

Now he really knew how important his mission was because who knew what state the rest of the town was in if the Doctor of it all had been mauled by an electrified mutant.

Running a hand through his hair, Victor wrinkled his nose in disgust at the grease coating his lengthy locks. Only a day ago, Whale's hair had been its usual short spiky style, but now it limply hung over his forehead. The growth may not have been that much, but it was enough to emphasize the passage of time. Taking into account the healed Lichtenberg Flower coupled with scars from a huge animal meant that at least a month had passed, if not more.

He needed answers. And definitely a bottle of Advil because this migraine really wasn't letting up.

After taking four pills dry, Victor stiffly shuffled into the shower and quickly cleaned himself off to seem at least mildly presentable to the rest of the town. Whale still felt that he had appearances to keep up around here.

With a towel draped around his hips, he limped into his walk-in closet to grab blue jeans, a 'Red Hot Chili Peppers' t-shirt and a black jacket. It could be the middle of summer or the middle of winter out there for all he knew.

After getting dressed, Whale slid along the wall for support until he reached the stairs. Now this would be the difficult part…or not. He shook his head at the recollections of racing Gerhardt down the banister as children. It had been a long while since Victor had considered such tomfoolery.

Not saying he did now, but it did seem like the easiest way to get to the first floor.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, he again clung to the wall, praying he did not fall over in his stumble to the foyer. Thankfully he still had an umbrella right where he had expected one to be as he would require some measure of help to get to where he needed to go. Being the town Doctor didn't mean you had crutches laying around your house for any old reason.

Now it was time for the real struggle because the journey to town had just begun. The only good news was that he had a house right nearby so that the town's only doctor would be a call away.

By a lucky guess, it actually turned out to be the middle of winter and was as cold a day Maine could have without experiencing snow. The only downside to the whole predicament was that it had either been within a month since the Pan incident or it had been at least a year if the seasons were anything to go by. Whale loathed to consider that he, him who could remember what he had eaten for breakfast on any random day, had actually forgotten months of his life – at least that.

Pushing down the what felt to be random trepidation of an empty street, he stepped onto the sidewalk, praying to the powers that be that if he fell, no one would see it happen. Thank god that not a soul was around, but that was most likely temporary due to the sliver of sunlight peeking over the horizon.

At the crack of dawn, there were only two places one could go and expect someone to be up and about: Granny's Diner and Storybrooke General Hospital. Considering one would have dazed and confused not-even-nurse practitioners while the other would have the only good cup of coffee in town, he made the obvious decision.

If there were to be any heroes looking for answers, this monster would find them at Granny's Diner.


	2. Chapter 2

_I'msosorryI'msosorryI'msosorry... SO SORRY. So I was planning on posting this about two months ago, but I've been so brain-numbingly busy that the internet is like a treasure I only see every other week. BUT PHEW- finally it's posted (and I hope it's not too terrible)._

_So many thanks to all who have reviewed (Thyrsette, besyd101, Rissa, and the Guest person)! I've always been very worried about my writing style being uninteresting, but I'm glad you're all enjoying it. There's still no Frankenwolf (or Ruby for that matter), but next chapter she'll be there, no worries! And next chapter I'm planning on posting much sooner than this one (WOOHOO SUMMER)! But enjoy~_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time._

A Brain, A Heart, A Home, The Nerve

**Chapter Two**

_One Year Ago_

Doctor Whale blinked away the quaint town of Storybrooke, standing firm as the giant dust storm of magic cascaded towards the prisoners of the land without magic. He still hated how magic overtook the senses, but now he accepted what was going on, accepted the feel of the magic – more like not yet understood science – enveloping him and the rest of town. Yes, this was what he had been waiting for since Victor von Frankenstein had awoken from the deep recesses of his mind. It was time to go home, to discard that ache that always reminded him he should not be here, that this could never be his realm.

As the cloud of purple slammed into him, he felt utterly at peace with leaving Storybrooke behind. With leaving the beautiful green-eyed monster, with abandoning the insane hatter he had come to call a friend and with never seeing the ingenious cricket again. No, he was not regretting bidding that half of his life behind. Storybrooke was in the past, Ingolstadt was to be his future.

For a second he felt nothing, and then next he knew the cool air of winter returned and he could smell the musk of the forest. Perhaps it had returned him to the woods around his mansion, which would be both an unexpected and happy surprise.

Victor – for that was who he was confident he was in this realm – slowly opened his eyes, relishing how he was finally where he should be. In his soul he finally felt complete, like a chunk of him had once again been returned to him upon reaching the place of his birth. Except as Whale saw the bright colors and unhindered glow of sunlight, he knew that this was not his original realm.

Surrounding him were colorfully dressed former citizens of Storybrooke, chattering and celebrating the momentous occasion. _They were home_.

Near him little Pinocchio was smiling and hugging his Papa, three blind mice were scurrying drunkenly under everyone's feet and Princess Cinderella was cooing to her child born in another dimension. Everyone was happy as could be.

The only one feeling like an outsider was the man who came straight out of a horror story, the man who had cared for each and every one of them for the past twenty-eight years. Had he really expected that Lady Luck would smile upon him and leave him to his research? Of course not, but he sure had hoped.

Victor held his head, the harsh reality of the situation hitting him like that purple smoke he had stocked so much faith in. What was he, a man of science and medicine, supposed to do in the magical Enchanted Forest? What was to happen to the Frankenstein name? How was he to live with a band of neanderthals who were still unable to comprehend that broken arms could be fixed with time and not questing for a fabled stick in the Cave of Doom?

"Victor," a familiar voice greeted him, sounding not a bit surprised at finding him there, "It appears that our glorious heroes have once again failed to provide someone their happy ending. Personally I'm happy to be here, but I can understand if you would be disgruntled."

This was why Victor could not put up with the hatter for extended periods of time; Jefferson never failed to push others' buttons. "Hello, Jefferson," the doctor muttered, deciding to continue to be sarcastic, "It truly would have been unfortunate if you or I had been returned to where we had been abducted from. I hear Wonderland is absolutely frigid this time of year."

His eyes rolled down to look at the innocent daughter of the hatter that was glued to her Papa's side. The child of the Enchanted Forest inspected him with wide and curious eyes as she took in his appearance.

Where every man from the Enchanted Forest wore plain shirts and pants with such fancy coats and accessories, Victor differed in that he wore a long buttoned-up coat, dull green pants to match and a shined-up pair of loafers. His slicked-back hair was probably another oddity to these people. While that Doctor Whale part of him thought he looked like a freak, the Doctor Frankenstein portion took pride in wearing what people from Ingolstadt would view as affluence.

With a grin and a shake of Jefferson's head he responded, "Quite the opposite really, right now it would be summer in Wonderland. Although there would be snow falling from the sky…If you go I really wouldn't recommend touching it, wouldn't want to leave any burns."

Doctor Whale glanced down at Grace with her wide-eyed, astounded look. In that curious gaze, you could tell something of a traveler existed in her, something of Jefferson. _You don't know how dangerous that is,_ Victor thought as her face turned to her father.

"One day can I see it, Papa? One day can I see Wonderland?" her pleading brown eyes looked so hopeful, and yet nothing better than death could come of it. Dimension-travelers always had unfortunate lives, and the one-and-only Mad Hatter was a perfect example of that. Though he was the most knowledgeable traveler to date with the happiest result following the end of his travels, his happiness was paid for through poverty, death, and insanity.

In Jefferson's eyes you could see terror for a split second that was quickly covered up by the crinkles of a smile, the doting father. "Perhaps one day, sweetheart," a heart of hesitation, "but you wouldn't want to visit those other places, they're really not all that interesting. I've found that the Enchanted Forest beats them all. We have the most splendid views, people, and games." Grace immediately frowned, that definitely wasn't what she had been expecting from her dad.

"Speaking of games," the Hatter continued with a smile, acting as if he hadn't seen Grace's face, "Why don't you go play with some of the other kids? I'm sure that Gretel or Pinocchio would love to play tag."

His young daughter nodded solemnly, but hugged her dad's legs and left without another word. "I swear," the Hatter murmured, "She looks like her mother but acts like me."

"Very dangerous indeed," Victor replied with the tiniest of crooked smiles, "Good news for you, however, no more means of transportation between dimensions exist without another curse."

"Which is very bad news for you," Jefferson said almost in the way of an apology, "No magic beans, ruby slippers, or magic hat to taxi you to your land. To be honest, I trashed the hat myself once all our memories were returned."

Victor released a sigh, of course he would have gotten rid of it after all the trouble it had caused. "Have you heard of any portals that people have created? In reference to portals being created where _no magic _is used?" Victor emphasized the 'no magic' bit simply because of all the hell it had put him and everyone else through. Others may be ready to sacrifice their heart for their cause, but Victor preferred to arrive back in Ingolstadt without a hole in his chest.

Jefferson's eyes roamed across the surrounding group for a moment, raking his brain for any instances of dimension-travel through science. He gave a half-smile – _god_, another joke – and commented, "I think the only way you could get out of here is if you were _the_ Doctor, not _a_ doctor."

Him and his shows, what else had he done besides make hats and watch TV or Grace when they had been in Storybrooke? "Thanks for that input, but I don't have a blue box to fly me home," Victor let loose his first grin since his arrival, referencing the show that Jefferson had insisted on showing him while drunk, "If only I did, that would be fantas-"

"Everybody, listen up!" the booming voice of Snow White's dwarf, Grumpy, rang out, silencing anyone within a half-mile radius.

"The Charmings have come to a decision on what we shall do. Though the Evil-" a dwarf proceeded to hit Grumpy, "-Regina destroyed our old home, the Charmings have forced-" another push, "-_convinced_ her to let us live in her castle. Any who want to live in the Enchanted Forest in peace can follow Doc to the castle. It's only a couple of miles west of here and it would be greatly appreciated if any who carry provisions could step up and share with the group."

With one gruff nod, Grumpy and four other dwarves continued their search for more separated groups. Victor turned back to Jefferson and noted the glare he was giving to the dwarves. "I never wanted to go back to the Evil Queen's castle if I could help it, but from how it sounds, all buildings have been destroyed, or looted for that matter," the Hatter grumbled.

"I can agree with that sentiment," Victor sighed. Ever since Victor had been awakened, he found himself to be angry around Regina. He had been a pawn in her game since his arrival in Storybrooke, plus she was the reason that the lecherous Whale constantly fought for dominance in his brain. Now he was to be humbled and thankful for her allowing him to stay in her castle, great.

As they began the trek to their refuge, slowly a castle rose into view. This one had towers like swords reaching out of the ground, surrounding a hidden egg; this fortress was perfectly created for the Evil Queen.

However, in Victor's opinion, it was smaller, taller, but less practical in comparison to his family's summer home. Then again, the Evil Queen was rich as could be and was allowed to be as frivolous as she desired without anyone raising a protest.

Everyone around him was chattering excitedly, looking to the fortress as a beacon of hope, thinking that their arrival there would signify safety. Unlike them, Victor had a very strong sense of intuition, gifted to all who lived in the colorless land where he was born. More than just Frankenstein's monster had reeked havoc on the streets giving any who survived past the teenage years the intuition to sense when predators were on the horizon.

And at the current moment, up there, in that castle, was a dangerous predator indeed. Victor glanced to his right where the Hatter brooded next to him in silence, "What do you think about the Evil Queen's castle?" Whale asked him, knowing that his worry would be confirmed.

Jefferson glanced around for his daughter, caught sight of her, waved her over and said, "I think I'll wait a bit to join the group. I don't feel like getting my or my daughter's hands dirty trying to slay the next Jabberwocky. See you later if you're not dead." With a salute and a wink, Grace and the Hatter swiftly left the group leaving no indication of having been there in the first place.

_Great,_ Doctor Whale groused, _Time to deal with an infinite amount of stupidity and death all by myself. If that castle's anything to go by, the Enchanted Forest might still need a doctor of their own._


End file.
